In the UAE, diabetes education must start at home

Diabetes is a scourge worldwide but particularly in the UAE, prompting the government to seek Unicef's help. But the problem must be nipped in the bud at home and from a very young age.

The International Diabetes Federation estimated last month that 382 million people live with the condition worldwide. More than 90 per cent of these cases are of the Type 2 variant, which can be managed but not cured. That same IDF data reveals that nearly one in five of the UAE’s population have been diagnosed with diabetes but many more may have the disease without even realising it. Other countries in the Gulf – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain – also report similar and higher percentages of diabetes cases among their populations.

Experts cite the relatively sedentary lifestyle of the modern age and bad dietary habits as the main causes for such figures. Indeed, diabetes stopped being the preserve of overweight, over-40s long ago and equally curses the young. In the UAE, a 2010 World Health Organisation survey found that 40 per cent of children aged 13 to 15 were overweight and 14.4 per cent were obese. Such statistics beat a path directly to Type 2 diabetes and open up the body to the possibility of further health complications in later life, including heart disease and dementia.

As The National reported yesterday, health and education chiefs have called upon the expertise of Unicef to tackle this issue and reverse this trend. The resulting School Health Education Project will teach approximately 400 school nurses how to instruct teenaged children at government schools on the benefits of healthy living.

Any engagement of this kind has to be applauded, but tackling obesity and diabetes should start at home and, indeed, much earlier in a child’s life. By the time a child has reached his or her teenage years, their path in life, their eating habits, their attitudes and their patterns of behaviour are largely set. It is up to parents to educate their children at home on the benefits of healthy eating and to encourage their children when they are young to pursue an active lifestyle.

Even moderate changes in lifestyle – healthier eating, light exercise and avoidance of tobacco products – garner relatively big rewards and keep the incoming tide of Type 2 diabetes at bay. Obesity trends can be reversed, but the burden for that work should not always rest with the authorities or in regulation. Remedial work is important, but in this case prevention is better than cure: a healthy active young child is likely to grow up into a healthy, active adult.